Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Stockpiling Totals + Meta Gem Resets

I'm continuing to stockpile some mats for 4.3. I haven't really sold off many gems yet because the market price for reds is simply not worth it. Every once in awhile I can snipe a few sales on expensive orange and purple gems that I'm scanning. Some people have tried to reset the various colored gem markets, but have failed mostly. Each time they try to reset particular cuts to 175-200g, they are immediately cut and walled below 120 again. I think that's a perfect lesson in what NOT to do in the gem market. Resetting is an extremely risky maneuver that can probably only be pulled off on server resets and at odd hours. There are simply too many players that sell gems for that to work. Ultimately though, if you are going to fail on resetting gem markets, now is the time because the prices will inevitably climb and your purchases can improve your stockpile.

On that note, one thing I have begun doing is resetting meta gem markets late at night and making some pretty good profits off it. The meta gem market on my server varies anywhere from 100g-300g a cut depending on the day. In all honesty, the prices are extremely random, which makes it an exciting prospect. Shadowspirit diamonds are an awesome buy-cut-sell market too. The margins between raw gems and cut gems are typically very small, enough so that it dissuades buying and cutting them. However for meta gems, you can still buy them ~100g and sell them anywhere from 150-300g as I mentioned before. Even if they don't all sell at the price you want, you can still wait to sell them in the future or sell them in 4.3, where prices are guaranteed to be higher.

Stockpiling Totals as of 10/19

  • 975 inferno rubies
  • 600 ember topazes
  • 650 demonseyes
  • 775 shadowspirit diamonds
  • 1000s of yellow, blue and green gems
  • 1100 greater cosmic essences
  • 300 maelstrom crystals
  • 175 heavenly shards
  • 53 jewelcrafting tokens
  • 29 dreamcloth
  • 350 bolts of embersilk cloth
  • 750 volatile air
  • 600 volatile water

Friday, October 7, 2011

WoW Update and Making Money off Leveling Mats

Just wanted to give a shoutout to my guild for finally killing Heroic Rag 25 (US 53rd, World 196th). We finally killed him this Wednesday after a 2 month progression on him, spanning over 250 wipes. For those just starting work on him, don't get discouraged. It will take a lot of experimenting and "strategery" to find a way to get to phase four, and then ultimately a ton of practice and failing in p4 itself before you get a kill.

Firelord Theodos
                                                                     
In other news, I have continued selling gems and scrolls (not so much scrolls since the prices have been dropping) as I would post-patch. I've made some serious gold off morons who have tried to reset the red gem market repeatedly, with one person buying up two gem walls of 25 gems each to move the price. I've also been trying to monopolize the server's ore market, buying up all the AH ore at low prices and PMing the botters to sell to me permanently. So far, I've gotten 3 new suppliers after only a day of work with it. Ultimately my goal is to cut the AH supply of ore so that gem prices will continue to rise. I see it as a win-win because it inundates me with cheap supply for stockpiling as well as supply to continue cutting gems for higher profit on the AH.

One thing I did want to talk specifically about in this post though, is making a profit off leveling mats for various professions.

Pre-patch is a time where people choose to level alts' professions for several reasons, among them being:

  • People are likely leveling and gearing up their alts already to catch the end of nerfed Firelands content and potentially make main changes going into 4.3. The PvP community will likely be refocusing their attention back to their mains to make late season pushes, but for the majority of the PvE community, this is the best time to get an alt geared up. BoEs are cheaper than ever, raids and dungeons have been nerfed to the ground, and there is an abundance of people bored with current content on their main character. 
  • Typically, most people who gear their characters at max level tend to level their professions at the same time. A level 85 without professions feels somewhat bare and incomplete without professions to accompany it. 
  • Mats are generally cheap now, especially mats for leveling 450-525. There's no reason to pay a premium for ore, herbs, leather and cloth post-patch when you can do it now for cheap. 
  • Now is the time when people are preparing to make GOLD post-patch. Some people are deciding to finally pony up and pay the costs of leveling a crafting profession with the knowledge that they can use that profession to not only cover their leveling costs, but also make good profits off it. 
So, with so many people deciding to level professions, there's only one thing to do: take advantage of the situation. The best method I have found to make money off leveling mats is to take a trip to http://www.wow-professions.com/. This handy site provides hands-down the best leveling guides on the internet. It not only gives step-by-step directions for leveling 1-525 in each profession, it also gives options for players if they reach a chokepoint in their leveling process. A chokepoint is basically a spot where there are no available resources for you to continue leveling on the AH. Since most players are lazy and refuse to actually look for alternatives, it's extremely easy to manipulate prices on these mats. Typically, the materials that most players have problems with are rare spawn ores and herbs (e.g. Goldthorn, Silver Ore). However, old world ores possess very volatile markets, which make them oftentimes difficult to find as well. Old world herbs are still farmed by some people because they are still valuable for inks. 

One way to manipulate the market for these materials is make an alert on http://theunderminejournal.com/ and add them to your snatch lists in-game. The best thing about these markets is that they are usually not camped, which makes them much easier to manage. They are also very easy to reset. A good strategy as well to employ when doing this, is to check out the shopping lists on wow-professions to see exactly how much of one material is needed to get past a chokepoint. Selling your items in stacks of the appropriate number will generate more sales. Selling in singles is also very profitable because people are often only required to gather 1-2 more of an item to get the single point they need to move to the next step in leveling. Logically, they will overpay for singles rather than buy a stack that will largely go to waste. 

In my experience, there are several items that have been very profitable:

  • Goldthorn: rare spawn herb that is needed to level alchemy
  • Cobalt Ore: needed by the truckload to level blacksmithing; the problem with Cobalt Ore is that people typically don't farm Howling Fjord or Dragonblight anymore, opting instead to farm Icecrown or Wintergrasp instead for Titanium and Saronite Ore. However, I have found on several occasions that people leveling mining will throw up a ton of stacks and dirt cheap prices just to unload them quickly. This is a great item to set alerts for because the volatility is extremely high. 
  • Runecloth/Mageweave: Tailors need TONS of runecloth to level. Runecloth is relatively easy to farm, but because of the quantity needed by tailors and it being used for turn-ins for city rep, it is snapped up quickly off the AH. Like Cobalt Ore, you can get it at dirt cheap prices though from levelers who pick them up from mobs and throw them on the AH to clear bag space. 
Depending on your server's economy, there are likely many other lucrative "chokepoint items" that you can make a profit from consistently. Become familiar with leveling mats and their markets, and you can stand to make a killing pre-patch with minimal effort. 

Saturday, October 1, 2011

4.3 Stockpiling vs. Current Production

Much like any other patch, I will be stockpiling heavily in the upcoming weeks (months). However, I have been having an issue regarding cost analysis and stockpiling. Before I go into this any further, I'll break down what I will be stockpiling:

Jewelcrafting

  • Red gems and orange gems (all uncut) as high priority
    • Red gems are pretty self-explanatory. With the new transmutes coming, red epic gems will be in high demand. Having 5 transmute alts, I want to be as prepared as I can to unload as many epic red gems as possible onto the AH. However, the majority of the raiding/PvPing community won't opt for epic gems because of the pricetag, which will keep prices on rare gems up.
  • Metas
    • Meta gems will also spike in price as they do each patch.
  • All other uncut gems
    •  I am stockpiling other uncut rares too because selling them now is simply not nearly as profitable as what I will be able to sell them for in 4.3. This also includes saving blue, green, and yellow uncut gems for PvP necklaces and rings when the new batch of PvP craftables gets introduced. 
  • Elementium/obsidium ore
    • Another self-explanatory item: ore. I've already prospected roughly ~1500 stacks of ore to produce gems and enchanting mats, but I'm also tucking away a few hundred stacks in case belt buckle prices jump or a new market develops from them. There is no reason to prospect everything this early.
  • Daily Tokens
    • Although new epic patterns likely won't be introduced via JC daily tokens, I am continuing to run the daily in case Chimera's Eye prices skyrocket. There is no downside to stocking up on tokens, so you might as well continue doing it. 
  • Carnelians/Heartblossom
    • The transmute elements for inferno rubies will be much cheaper now than after patch. I'm not stockpiling these mats, but rather buying them in bulk at discount and crafting rubies to stockpile.
Enchanting

  • MAELSTROM CRYSTALS!
    • Word has already hit the street on my server to start stocking up on these for the patch, but I was still able to snag a solid stockpile once news of the Shatter popped up. Demand for crystals will grow exponentially with the patch.
  • Heavenly Shards
    • Even though these will likely be driven down in price, that does not mean they are not worthy investments. High-end enchanting scrolls will still need them and the manner by which I acquire them now does not require me to pilfer them off the AH. I get the entirety of my Heavenly Shard supply from the shuffle and Stormforged Shoulders.
  • Greater Cosmic Essence
    • Self-explanatory. Essences are required for almost every relevant end-game/PvP enchant in the game. The market for GCEs has been relatively volatile in the past month, with price swings on my server from 40-70g.
Tailoring

  • Dreamcloth
    • BoE raiding gear will require Dreamcloth as a primary material. Right now, the only thing Dreamcloth is really useful for is selling spellthreads and the occasional BoE if prices are right. Margins will be much higher with 4.3 on Dreamcloth.
  • Embersilk Cloth
    • I'm buying any cloth that hits the AH under 50g a stack now. I plan on using the majority of the cloth for the new PvP sets that will come out. Since I play on a PvP server, these will sell like hotcakes at premium prices all day long. For anyone playing on a server like Sargeras, Illidan, Tichondrius, Kel'thuzad, etc., it's a huge mistake to not hit this market. 
Stockpiling Dilemma

As mentioned before, right now I am in a dilemma regarding stockpiling vs. selling on all of the JC and enchanting markets. On my server, ore is still readily available, sitting at 40-50g a stack. I'm buying anything under 43g and still getting regular shipments from farmers via CoD at 30-40g. Over the past month, the gem market has steadily declined. Red gems have been sitting anywhere from 80-100g with heavy supply, orange/purple gems 15-25g with heavy supply and yellow/green/blue anywhere from 5-20g. However, in the past week or so, gem prices have started to rebound. Red gems are slowly pushing over 100g and hybrids are back in the 30-40g range consistently. Meta gems have almost doubled in value over the past few weeks. Supply for all gems across the board has decreased while ore prices have steadied.

Meanwhile, in the scroll market, prices have skyrocketed. I completely abandoned making scrolls and started stockpiling a month ago because almost every single scroll (not including Windwalk, Power Torrent, and Landslide) were not turning profits. It was actually more beneficial to sell the mats. But as enchanting mats have dwindled on the AH, scroll prices have shot through the roof. 

In short, the dilemma is: there is good profit to be made right now and I've got a huge supply of mats to take advantage of it. BUT with a lucrative patch lurking, how can I afford shedding any stock right now? While I think it's important to have the stock to supply the demand for the new patch, I also think it's important to be the first "back to market." By that, I mean that a large portion of my competitors have given up or reined back their coverage of markets. If I can get back in and establish the pricing of scrolls and gems, I stand to make massive profits. I think I will give it another week of monitoring and try to make a splash back into scrolls and gems, but for the meantime I will continue stockpiling.